Shmita in Everyday Life – Behar-Bechukotai
דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם כִּי תָבֹאוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי נֹתֵן לָכֶם וְשָׁבְתָה הָאָרֶץ שַׁבָּת לה' (ויקרא כה, ב).
The Malbim gives an interesting perush on why we have an entire year of Shmita. He says that the purpose of Shmita is for the earth to rest, a kind of "Shabbat" for the earth. During the six years the earth is constantly "working", even on Shabbat. On Shabbat every week, we rest, but what about the earth? It is still working while we are resting – the crops in the fields are still growing, the fruit trees are still producing fruit etc. The earth also needs its own "Shabbat" to rest – this is Shmita. If you take all the Shabbatot (52/year) in a six-year cycle, that makes 312 Shabbatot that the earth is working when it could be resting like we are. Therefore, in the year of Shmita the earth makes up its missed 312 days of rest from the previous six years, plus the 52 Shabbatot in the Shmita year itself, making a total of 364 days rest. (OK it is not exactly 365, but it's close enough).
The sugya of Shmita at the beginning of this week's parsha follows two sugyot that precede it in last week's parsha Emor – the sugya of the mekalel and immediately prior to that, the sugya of the Lechem Hapanim. The juxtaposition of these three sugyot is not incidental and comes to teach us a profound principle.
Since we have just finished the year of Shmita, the subject may not seem topical (for another six years), however the concept of Shmita is highly topical and applies not only to the actual year of Shmita, but to our everyday lives as well.
In this week's shiur I want to discuss the subject of parnasa. The source of the principles discussed here is from sefer Meir Panim. In fact, this shiur is a spoiler for the sefer, because the bottom line of Meir Panim is – parnasa (it is still definitely worthwhile reading the actual sefer though, because it contains many additional aspects that cannot possibly be encapsulated in a shiur of this length).
In Gan Eden, Adam and Chava did not have to concern themselves with parnasa. Yes, HKB"H placed Adam in the garden לְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ (בראשית ב, טו) and one might think that this means that Adam had to "work" for a parnasa in the garden. However, this is not the case, the intention of לְעָבְדָהּ was - to "work", to toil in the study of Torah, the עץ החיים and וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ - to steer clear of the עץ הדעת which symbolized materialism. Adam's "material" parnasa was automatic and required no effort on his part.
To give us a small inkling what an idyllic reality that was, the Gemara in Ketubot (111b) describes how parnasa will work in the time of the Geulah (which is a duplicate of what Adam and Chava enjoyed in Gan Eden). "HKB"H will release a wind from His treasury, which will blow through the leaves (of the wheat tree – as tall as a Lebanon cedar) and dislodge its fruits. Man will stroll through the garden and fill his hands with his family's sustenance". That also conjures up images of the Mann in the Midbar – essentially the Mann was duplication of the parnasa that Adam and Chava enjoyed in Gan Eden. And it was not only food, it was everything else as well – clothing, laundry, air-conditioning, etc. In fact, the purpose of the Midbar was to simulate Gan Eden in every respect, in order to free up your time so that you had nothing pressing to do except study Torah and do mitzvot. There were no health issues, HKBH cured all Bnei Yisrael's ailments with the Mann and the water from the Well of Miriam. There was no issue of education, insurance, mortgages, taxes, paying for weddings, barmitzvahs, halls, catering, photographers, flowers, etc. or any of the issues that occupy our lives today from morning till night. When you woke up every morning you did not have a care in the world, your days were entirely free to do whatever you wanted to do. HKB"H's intention, like with Adam and Chava in Gan Eden, was that the time would be used for Torah.
Imagine if suddenly one day you heard the doorbell ringing and you opened the door and there stood Elon Musk (for those who don't know who Elon Musk is – he is one of the richest people in the world, owner of Twitter, the Tesla electric car company, amongst other things). After you got over your initial shock at finding Elon Musk on your doorstep, you invite him in and ask what he is doing there. Elon replies that he found your shiurim while browsing for something online and he was completely captivated by them and the life changing lessons in them and he decided to come meet you personally and hand you a check for one billion dollars! With only one condition – that you would devote every working hour of the day to continue to write similar shiurim online. If you break that condition, you have to return the money. You obviously agree, he hands you the check, and leaves you with your mouth still hanging open, in shock over the good fortune that has suddenly befallen you. One billion dollars! More money than you could possibly ever spend in your and your great-grand-children's lifetime. Would you feel indebted to Elon Musk for the rest of your life? (stupid question). Would you keep your part of the bargain? (stupid question).
Lehavdil elef alfei havdalot, that is what happened with Adam and Chava and that is what happened with Bnei Yisrael when they left Egypt. They "opened the door" and there was HKB"H (kiveyachol) standing at their doorstep, holding, not a one-billion-dollar check, but a thousand-trillion-dollar check! And not just the check, but also immortality to enjoy it for ever and ever!
Now we begin to understand the magnitude of the calamity, when instead of simply doing what HKB"H asked them to do, they did davka the opposite. Adam had everything he needed, what business did he have poking his nose into the עץ הדעת? the very thing that HKB"H told him was a deal breaker. What business did Am Yisrael have serving the עגל, just because Moshe had not returned (when they mistakenly thought he was supposed to return). Even if they believed Moshe was dead (the שטן tricked them by showing Moshe's coffin floating in the air). What about HKB"H Himself? They had personally witnessed HKB"H on Har Sinai only a few days before. HKB"H hadn't gone anywhere! How could Bnei Yisrael, the כלה under the chuppah, abandon her חתן HKB"H and serve the עגל? The marriage/brit was between Bnei Yisrael and HKB"H, not Bnei Yisrael and Moshe – Moshe had nothing to do with it.
These were not minor infractions. They were fundamental deal breakers that drastically altered humanity and the course of history forever. On these two points HKB"H will not compromise – gratitude and doing what He tells us to do (following the Torah).
As a result, HKB"H cancelled the deal. "You had everything on a plate but you chucked it in My face? Now let's see you now fend for yourself!" The world we live in today is the aftermath of that. The realities of parnasa in the world today is the aftermath of that. The purpose of our lives today is to repair that damage, each doing our own little part, collectively comprising the tikkun.
In the "post-calamity", pre-Geulah reality we live in today, parnasa is not automatic, as I'm sure you've noticed. (In most cases) Elon Musk does not appear at your door, you have to work really hard (in addition to writing shiurim online). By all rights HKB"H could have told us - "I want nothing to do with you", instead, in His mercy, He gave us the Torah and the guidelines to enable us to survive, not only spiritually, but also physically. There are numerous masechtot in the Gemara which deal with materialistic "money" - loans, interest, contracts, possessions, inheritance, damages, dowries, tzedakka, etc. By studying the Torah, we learn the halacha le'ma'aseh - how to conduct ourselves in everything relating to parnasa.
The first universal rule of parnasa is – knowing where it comes from. All parnasa comes from one source and one source only – HKB"H. If you think that your parnasa comes from anywhere else, refer to the first rule above.
The second universal rule of parnasa is - whatever you "possess" does not belong to you. Whatever you have is given to you on loan from HKB"H and if HKB"H sees fit He may take back the loan.
The third universal rule of parnasa is – whatever your fortune is at any given time, it is exactly what HKB"H deems necessary for you in your current situation. This is the secret to "wealth". A truly wealthy person is someone who is satisfied with whatever they have and does not question HKB"H's allocation of fortune. A feeling that you "deserve more" parnasa is a sure-fire recipe for unhappiness and a kind of avodah zarah, because you are questioning HKB"H's judgment.
I read an incredible story related to this in sefer Baruch Yomeiru. In Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, each day the SS guards would enter the barrack and read out one name on a list and march the unfortunate soul who was selected outside and execute him. One day the SS guard read out the name "Abraham Steiner". Steiner, who obviously was not in the mood to die that day, cowardly pointed to the man standing next to him, David Rothstein, and shouted out "He is Steiner". David Rothstein, a devoutly religious man, did not know what to do. If he denied that he was Steiner it would probably end up that the SS guard would kill them both. He decided if this is the way HKB"H decreed things should be then he was not going to question it and he stepped forward and exited the barracks with the SS guard. When they reached the outside courtyard the SS guard turned to David Rothstein and said "Steiner, today we are going to do something different. Normally every day we execute the name on the list called out. Today, the name on the list that we called out will live and the rest of the people in the barrack will die." As he finished the sentence, they heard machine gun fire from inside the barrack. If Steiner had not said what he said, David Rothstein would have died that day. As it turns out, he survived the camps and told this story 50 years later when he was 86 and living in Israel.
The fourth universal rule of parnasa is – it cannot not exist in a vacuum. Material blessings, called בריאה יש מיש, require some initial material basis on which to rest. This is the lesson of the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim. There has to constantly be bread on the Shulchan for HKB"H's blessing to rest on it. As a result of this, there is a halacha (שו"ע קפ, א-ב) that one should never say Birkat Hamazon on an empty table. One should never remove all the bread from the table until after saying Birkat Hamazon.
A derivative of this this rule is that hishtadlut is required in order to merit parnasa. A person cannot sit back and say that if HKB"H has decreed that I should have such and such, then even if I sit idly by and do nothing, that is what I will get anyway. That is relying on miracles and we are forbidden to place ourselves in a situation where the only solution is a miracle (Kiddushin 39b).
There is a famous story told about HaRav Chaim Kanievsky zt"l. Frequently people would visit his home and ask for a bracha. One day an אברך visited the Rav and said he was having difficulty with parnasa and could the Rav please give him a segula for parnasa. HaRav Kanievsky zt"l asked the young man a few personal questions and then beckoned for him to approach closer. The אברך approached the Rav, eagerly anticipating hearing some "secret" passuk or perek, a segula for parnasa to get him out of the tight spot. The Rav bent over and whispered the "segula" in his ear – "Go get a job!"
Most people trip up with this fourth rule. Some do not make enough of a hishtadlut while others overdo the hishtadlut. Too much hishtadlut can be equally dangerous as too little, because when a person overdoes the hishtadlut, they lose sight of the first rule above, coming to believe that the "source" of their parnasa is their own hishtadlut.
There is another famous story in this regard. A poor man, over his head in debt, is floundering until a friend suggests that he go to shul and pray to HKB"H for ישועה. The non-religious man wakes up early every morning that week and goes to shul and pours his heart out, begging HKB"H for help. That Friday he has an inspiration and goes out and buys a lottery ticket. In the draw on Motzei Shabbat he wins first prize - 10 million shekels. All his financial problems are solved! The following week Hashem notices that the man is no longer coming to shul. Hashem gives him the benefit of the doubt - perhaps he has COVID and is in isolation? However, after a month of no sign of the man in shul, HKB"H decides to visit him in a dream. "Chaim, how are you? I haven't seen you in shul these past few weeks. I heard you were in financial trouble, do you need my help?" Chaim responds "No, it's OK, I managed to sort it out on my own, thank you!"
One of the most dangerous things a person can do regarding parnasa is believing that כוחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה. We saw this vividly two months ago during the anti-government demonstrations here in Israel where a number of left-wing hi-tech tycoons decided to disinvest in Israel and transfer their wealth to America. A week or two later SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) collapsed and anyone who moved their investment out of the Israeli banks and placed them in the SVB lost their fortune, while those who opted to leave their money in Israel were not affected in any way.
The belief that our parnasa is dependent on ourselves or the global economy and that the global economy is a force unto itself, is a form of avodah zarah.
The fifth universal rule of parnasa is – share what you have with others. When someone gets into financial trouble, the first thing they do is cut down on all the tzedakka they are giving. They should be doing the opposite – by giving more tzedakka they have a better chance of extricating themselves from the difficulty.
The entire subject of the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim is a shiur on parnasa. The Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim are the conduit for the Divine abundance in Heaven, the infinite שפע העליון, to our material, physical world. Every minute facet of the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim has embedded within a profound life lesson regarding parnasa. What I have described above is only a fraction of what is discussed in Meir Panim and what appears in Meir Panim is only an infinitesimal "scratching of the surface" of the actual wealth of knowledge that the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim have to teach us.
Like the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim, Shmita is similarly a lesson in the true meaning of parnasa. All the principles of the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim are mirrored in the principle of Shmita.
Shmita is a lesson in emunah. It is a lesson in gratitude and recognition of where parnasa truly originates. Like the Lechem Hapanim, it is part of the tikkun for that first sin of ingratitude that resulted in the current reality. While the Lechem Hapanim works the tikkun in a public sense, in the Beit Hamikdash, Shmita works the tikkun in a private sense, each member of Am Yisrael, in their own home.
The above concepts embedded in the Lechem Hapanim and Shmita function to achieve a balance in our lives, the ideal balance between materialism and spiritualism in this physical world. This balance can be found in symbiotic relationships like those between Yissachar and Zevulun and the other tribes.
This is why the sugya of the mekalel is sandwiched between the Lechem Hapanim and Shmita, because the mekalel ridiculed and cursed the balance of קדושה between the Twelve Tribes and the concept of השגחה פרטית in relation to parnasa. Because he was not given the recognition he felt he deserved (an inheritance in the Tribe of Dan), he decided to "burn everything down" and instead of resigning himself and being content with his lot, he rebelled against HKB"H.
Lechem Hapanim and Shmita are one and the same, they teach us the same lessons and it is not only once every seven years. We can apply these lessons every single day of our lives, every minute of every day.
It is all about gratitude and unquestioningly following what HKB"H says, never allowing our personal agendas to take precedence over HKB"H's Divine wisdom.
The lack of the above is what caused the calamity in Gan Eden and our job is to fix that, each in our own lives and reality, by following the rules. Collectively this will effect the tikkun and restore the world to its original intended state. בבי"א.
